The Power of Pauper: Midrangey
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of The Power of Pauper! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we're going to talking all about Midrange piles in current Pauper and what they look like and how they play out. They seem to be very popular at the moment! In addition we have Challenges to look at from last week.
Midrange-Fest 2025
It's been a little bit since the banning of High Tide and as things have begun shaking out, I've definitely noticed a fair bit of Midrange piles coming back into the format. Midrange in Pauper often means decks that are able to keep things on lock in the early game but then have a lot of really efficient threats in the mid to late game, much like how Midrange has been over all of Magic. In Pauper, this expresses itself in a number of different ways, and in current Pauper there are a few big Midrange strategies to keep an eye out for.
The most obvious of these at the moment that just so happens to be one of the most popular decks in the format is of course, Jund Wildfire.
Out of all of the current decks in Pauper, when I think of Midrange I think of Jund. It has a lot of the classic hallmarks of a Midrange deck. Lots of early ways to deal with threats like Cast Down and discard like Refurbished Familiar, along with very efficient mid to top-end threats in Writhing Chrysalis and Nyxborn Hydra. The deck also has a strong built-in ramp component, using Cleansing Wildfire to attempt to destroy its own Bridges and getting a basic land out of the exchange and also getting to draw a card.
The one major thing most of these Midrange piles have in common though, is the ability to leverage card draw by sacrificing things. This is prevalent in a number of decks in the format, including decks like Affinity.
Affinity is another deck that is extremely popular in Pauper, so it's good to pay attention to what people are doing with the deck. The controlling elements alongside the large efficient threats (in this case, cost reduced for Affinity for Artifacts) is what allows this deck to push through to a win. Affinity can often be pretty grindy to win with, which is why it plays so much card draw so that it can keep up in that bridge from the early to mid/late game.
Also sharing much of this same core currently is Golgari Gardens.
This deck has a few variations to it, from lists playing green cards in the main deck to decks playing absolutely zero green cards in the main and only in the sideboard. The core is pretty much the same, though. Cheap removal like Defile and Cast Down combined with the same card draw engines we see in both Jund and Affinity and late game threats like Troll of Khazad-dum and Avenging Hunter. Controlling the board is easy with cards like Crypt Rats that can remove small threats, and Tithing Blade, which can not only take care of singular creatures but also become a way to eventually win the game in multiples.
However, black isn't the only way to Midrange in current Pauper. Another variation of the Midrange strategy, which leans into a bit more controlling side of things, is Caw-Gates.
This deck trades some of the more hard removal like Cast Down for countermagic in the form of Counterspell and temporary removal like Journey to Nowhere. It also has a lot of really undercosted threats that seem innocuous on the surface, but become major threats when boosted by cards like Basilisk Gate. Guardian of the Guildpact can be back-breaking when it is put up against decks like Mono Red where it can block for days and swing through for lethal usually. The lifelink from things like Sacred Cat helps keep the deck alive in the early game bolstered by its countermagic, but then becomes big life point swings when using the Gates.
These are just a few of the ways you can approach Midrange decks in current Pauper, and there's always a lot more out there than this. Are there any decks you are enjoying that fall into this category? Let me know in the comments below.
Pauper Challenge 32 11/20/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Thursday event. This event had 42 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Golgari Gardens | 1st | __Noob__ |
| Mono Red Rally | 2nd | Yyber |
| Jund Wildfire | 3rd | Walker735 |
| Grixis Affinity | 4th | LuffyDoChapeauDePalha |
| Grixis Affinity | 5th | SpockVidaLoka |
| Grixis Madness | 6th | ewerb123 |
| Elves | 7th | LoneCubone |
| Mono Red Madness | 8th | A_AdeptoTerra |
Reasonable spread here. Affinity had some strong representation here. At the end of the event though it was Golgari Gardens that won.
The green part of this list is relegated mainly to sideboard cards like Troublemaker Ouphe and Weather the Storm. It's interesting to see this shift in how the deck has worked, but there's just a lot of really strong cards in mono black like Tithing Blade that make that shift worth it.
In Second Place, we had Mono Red Rally.
This is something of an experiment with naming conventions, as we've split up some of the various Mono Red lists based on what the deck is actually doing. The Red Pingers list isn't quite the same kind of game plan as the Rally list is, as the Rally list here is really just trying to put bodies on the ground and then use stuff like Rally at the Hornburg and Goblin Bushwhacker to really seal in the damage to win the game.
Pauper Challenge 32 11/21/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 55 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Grixis Affinity | 1st | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Mono Blue Faeries | 2nd | Enz091 |
| Grixis Affinity | 3rd | MajorFurry |
| Bogles | 4th | PNascimento |
| Mono Red Madness | 5th | Denisevich |
| Mono Blue Terror | 6th | Irenicus_Mfs |
| Grixis Affinity | 7th | Hamuda |
| Mono Red Madness | 8th | marzaboi |
Lot of Affinity here, and in fact it won the event.
This pilot plays a ton of Affinity, so if you're really looking for a good place to start with the archetype, I would definitely start with one of their lists. Cryogen Relic as another copy of Ichor Wellspring is pretty powerful, and I absolutely love Hunter's Blowgun here.
In Second Place, we had Mono Blue Faeries.
This is really clean and focused list. Illvoi Galeblade has fit in rather nicely to this deck. Just having a quick flash threat that can be bounced with ninjutsu is very good. I'm also digging the Unable to Scream in the sideboard.
Pauper Challenge 32 11/22/2025
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 48 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Golgari Gardens | 1st | __Noob__ |
| Mono White Heroic | 2nd | Kvothe_De_Arrascaeta |
| Jund Wildfire | 3rd | Nasello |
| Mono Blue Terror | 4th | Luminati |
| Mono White Aggro | 5th | Niederschatten |
| Dredge | 6th | Natalino_91 |
| Mono Blue Terror | 7th | ff7 |
| Mono Red Madness | 8th | Blcvky |
This is a really diverse Top 8. At the end of the event it was the same Golgari Gardens pilot and list that won from the Thursday event.
I think what really makes this deck is honestly Troll of Khazad-dum. Being able to cycle for mana you need is great, and then late game it makes for a really powerful threat.
In Second Place we had Mono White Heroic.
Armored Armadillo as a stand-in for a Bogle is pretty sweet. It does have Ward 1 which is pretty solid, and being a 0/4 puts it out of the reach of a lot of spells.
Pauper Challenge 32 11/23/2025
The final Challenge event of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 57 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Mono Red Madness | 1st | marzaboi |
| Mardu Midrange | 2nd | viashinoperuano |
| Mono Blue Terror | 3rd | Luminati |
| Elves | 4th | Natalino_91 |
| Glint Blade | 5th | MisterTwin |
| Mono Blue Terror | 6th | Xwhale |
| Mono Red Madness | 7th | DaMuGa-Murcia |
| Spy Combo | 8th | Cyberzilla |
This is a really good Top 8 too. At the end of the event it was Mono Red Madness that won.
Splitting off Mono Red Madness into its own subarchetype also made a lot of sense, because the deck has a lot more laser focused game plan than the Grixis version does. This is the pure aggressive build that seeks to get the opponent from 20 to 0 super quickly.
In Second Place we had Mardu Midrange.
The big card here that I think really makes this deck function is Melded Moxite. It turns all your Sneaky Snackers into creatures on board by pitching one to its trigger.
Around the Web
- Pauperganda has a video on Heroic. Check it out here.
- My good friend Alex Ullman has some solid metagame recaps on last week. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
As League results are now spread out across the week, let's dig in and find something spicy!
SLIME AGAINST HUMANITY.
Wrapping Up
That's all the time we have this week folks! Thanks for continuing to support the column and join us next week as we continue our journey into Pauper!
As always, you can reach me at all my associated links via my Link Tree! In addition I'm always around the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the MTGPauper Discord Server.
Until next time!
